Emerging HIT

Electronic Health Record Certification

What is the purpose of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology?

The Certification of EHR technology is a mechanism instituted to assure those who purchase or use an EHR system or product that the system and or product has the required technological capability, functionality and security to meet the objectives necessary to meet the requirements of meaningful use for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs. Purchasers of HIT systems and products should be confident that their investments meet the goal of advancing health IT and improving the quality of patient care.

The Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) issued a final rule on June 18, 2010 for the establishment of a health information technology certification program. The final rules outlines the temporary certification program for EHR’s and outlines the process organizations need to pursue to be authorized to test and certify EHR technology.

The June 18 Health and Human Services press release stated that “EHR technology certification will assure healthcare providers that the EHR technology that they adopt has been tested and includes the required capabilities they need in order to use the technology in a meaningful way to improve the quality of care provided to their patients”.

ONC has authorized several organizations to perform testing and certification of EHR’s. The following organizations have been approved as ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies for complete EHR and EHR modules. Click on the following links to access information on each of the certifying organizations:

The Office of the National Coordinator has also published a list of certified electronic health record technology to assist in product selection. Click on the following links to access Certified Health IT products